SAE Involved in Car Accident- Possible Hazing

[ZTAngel]

(ZTAngel shakes her head)

Hazing suspected in fraternity collision
The Central Florida Future- 10/20/2003
By Ben Baird

Sigma Alpha Epsilon is under investigation for possible hazing following a head-on collision between two pickups early Thursday morning on Aquarius Agora Boulevard.

Fraternity pledges who were in the back of one truck ran from the accident with their hands bound with tape, and at least one was pledge limping, witnesses said.

According to UCF Police, the collision involved two trucks, a Ford F-150 that was carrying members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and a Toyota pickup carrying fraternity pledges.

"I spoke with the driver of the Ford pickup, and he said that he swerved into the oncoming traffic just to play a trick on his pledge brothers, and when he swerved back into his lane his cell phone fell into the floor of his truck," UCF Police Officer George Penvose wrote in his report of the accident. "He said that when he reached down to pick the phone up, he looked back up and realized that he was still in the on-coming traffic lane and that he hit the white Toyota head-on."

"First and foremost, the members that were involved in the accident are all OK," Richard Frucci, the fraternity's UCF chapter president, wrote Friday in an e-mail. He said Dustin Brown, who sustained the most serious injury while riding in the back of the Toyota with three other pledges, was admitted to Orlando Regional Medical Center; Brown has since been released. His nose reportedly was almost severed in the accident.

Witness Tiffany Clark, a resident assistant at Lake Claire Apartments, the on-campus housing complex located behind the SAE fraternity house, told police she saw one of the men in the truck's bed with his hands either taped or tied together. She said the men involved in the accident pulled off their shirts, saying that police would not know they were SAE members if they took off their shirts.

Daniel Collins, another resident assistant at Lake Claire Apartments, told police he saw a man limping away from the accident with his hands duct-taped in front of him. The man asked Collins if he had a way to cut the tape from his hands. Collins said there was a strong smell of alcohol coming from the man.

All the RAs who were witnesses described the collision as "a hazing incident that happened to go wrong," according to the police report. After making their statements to officers, those RAs lead police to a Dumpster where they found a piece of duct tape with human hair on it.

Frucci objected to the police report's portrayal of the events. "There are two major facts that are false in their report and need to be known," Frucci said in his e-mailed statement after declining to be interviewed by the Future over the phone. "No one in the Toyota pickup was subdued or duct-taped in any way. There was absolutely and not at any point alcohol involved."

Frucci also said that, contrary to the police report, there was only one active brother of SAE involved in the accident.

The question of hazing has since been turned over by police to UCF's Office of Student Conduct, which can investigate and impose punishment including expulsion from UCF of those involved.

Greg Mason, director of UCF's Office of Greek Affairs, was out of town and could not be reached. Ryan O'Rourke, president of UCF's Interfraternity Council and a member of SAE, did not respond to interview requests.

The matter is also being reviewed by SAE's national office. "We're investigating right now," said Ryan Weiers, assistant executive director for SAE's Southeast Region, who was contacted by phone Friday at the fraternity's headquarters in Evanston, Ill.

The next step, he said, is to determine whether hazing occurred and, if so, to what degree. Weiers noted that as of Friday afternoon, he had "not determined anything."

Weiers declined to comment on possible disciplinary action. "SAE fraternity does not condone hazing and we take it very seriously," he said. Weiers traveled to UCF from SAE headquarters on Saturday for a previously scheduled event, but said he would be using the time to continue his investigation.

"The chapter does not condone these incidents and wants to reassure the alumni, parents and all others that this was an isolated incident and not the mind set or habits of the chapter," Frucci said.